Pat's Birthday (Part 2)

I told Pat a few weeks ago that we were going to celebrate his birthday with a "beanfeast" (as in, "I want a feast. I want a beanfeast." a la Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka) but he totally forgot so I think it was a nice surprise. (A beanfeast is actually a party an employer gives for his employees so my interpretation of the word was a bit more literal...) I made chili, he was gifted some jellybeans and we had a Cheesecake Torte which I altered to be made with vanilla bean. Cheesecake is not generally my preferred dessert because I don't like how dense it is but this recipe was lighter and I loved it. I was worried that Pat wouldn't approve because he is a cheesecake purist but he liked it too! Happy Birthday Pat!

Pat's Birthday (Part 1)

Pat's 31st birthday was yesterday (happy birthday!) and we got together with his family over the weekend to celebrate Pat, his dad and his sister's birthday which are all a couple weeks apart. After eating a great dinner out we came home for a cookie cake!  



Blowing out the candles!



Dessert and a story





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Skillet Blondies - I nixed the espresso, dark chocolate, hazelnut and coconut chips in the recipe and just threw in
semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter chips. So good! 

Owen!

We've had two "Paige!" posts recently so we are overdue for an "Owen!" post. Without further ado...






This picture makes me laugh every time! Owen popped in from out of nowhere with the perfect timing and placement!



St Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to ya! Once again, it is far past the date I am posting about but I'm putting up St Patrick's Day pictures anyway! I've been spending more time scrapbooking than blogging because I'm trying to finish up Paige's baby scrapbook before she turns 2! I'm only about a year behind schedule...but I'm almost done! Back to the holiday-a leprechaun visited our house in the night and took all the cushions off the couch and hid a couple of gold coins underneath, he also turned some milk green and left a trail of glitter. Leprechauns are super sneaky.

A leprechaun did not make this. I did. It might be a leprechaun however, that has made this picture sideways because I can't figure out how to rotate it

Owen was quick to locate the gold coins!

Owen was busy playing but I convinced him to pose

Lucky Duck!

Paige!

Most people only get to see Paige after she has rolled around and totally flattened out her hair so I thought I would show you a picture of how curly it actually gets!

Pie Day!

Yesterday was Pi(e) Day! We made this Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pie and it was delicious. It was difficult to cut the pieces because of the chocolate drizzled on top but the messiness was worth all the trouble. We omitted the white chocolate and I'm glad we did because I think the pie would have been too sweet with it! If you click on the link for the recipe you will see a picture that does not accurately represent the recipe for this pie but looks just as yummy.

Recently...



Chocolate Chip Granola Bars




Quinoa Tabouli




Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes



Paige!

Zoo!

As promised, I am posting pictures of people instead of food (of course, I will be posting food in my next post most likely...)! We headed to the zoo this morning because we knew the weather was going to be nice. We didn't get to see everything before Paige needed her nap but we did cover a lot of ground and it seemed like the animals were as excited as we were about the nice weather!

Veggie Burger Success!

When I went to look for my veggie burger pictures I realized that I had twenty pictures of food on the camera and zero pictures of people. I don't know where all of my excitement about food is coming from lately but I'm certainly having fun with it! That means even more food coming in the next few posts! Perhaps I will also sneak a picture of my lovely family into the blog.

I told Pat I was giving homemade veggie burgers one more try before I gave up completely so I'm very excited I liked this last recipe! Pat was probably not so excited...These were really good but the burgers do have bread crumbs in them so putting them in a bun was a bit much. I liked it better the next day just wrapped in some lettuce. As always, I changed a couple things around (no sunflower seeds, pecans instead of almonds) but I'm pretty sure the taste was similar to what was intended.

Veggie Burger!



Slice of Apple (Pie)

 I have a new helper around the kitchen...it's Paige. I think she was drawn in by the appeal of standing on the stepstool but stayed for the fun baking times. Paige and I put together these Apple Pie Bites because I had an extra pie crust from those Mini Cannoli. They were really good but Pat said, and I agree, that next time we'll take the skin off the apple.